NRL SOO was born out of pure hate. Both codes used to play regular state games but Queensland (like WA & SA) got sick of seeing their players who played in NSWRL turning out for NSW and belting them, SOO happened in ‘80 as a trial and when QLD won it went from there. The other key factor is that generally, Australian jumpers are on the line and as RL is an international game (albeit limited) it has some meaning as in you actually get to play RL for Australia against an opponent. To my knowledge and limited time living in Sin City, no one has ever turned up to regulation home and away RL games. I attended a lot of the games which used to start immediately following the end of a Swans game at the adjacent stadium. Swans would start at 1pm, Chooks at 5, girlfriend was a Nurse and used to work lates so I’d drop her at work head to the SCG / SFS, finish at about 7:30 grab a Pizza on the way home and pick her up after. If the crowd was between 4-7k that was a good day. Different if it was an occasion at the start of the year at the AFL you could turn up at 10 to 1 and sit wherever you liked, by Round 16 when the Swans were flying and playing the G Ablett Snr Geelong it was sold out 4 weeks in advance, it’s that kind of place very difficult to get around and geographically harder because of the riversIronically, one of the reasons why the NRL's SOO product is so popular is because the AFL has smashed it in terms of club football and national reach. It kills the NRL on pretty much every figure that matters - attendance, national exposure, broadcast dollars... it has a decent foothold in Sydney and Brisbane, whereas very, very few people give a damn about the Storm.